Just two years ago, RealtyTrac was in some hot water over counting foreclosure filings multiple times for a single property and providing inflated foreclosure statistics to the media. Since then, the company has said to have changed its data collecting and reporting methods. However, as seen in last week’s articles, many of these duplicate listings are still appearing throughout the media.

On their statistics page, readers can see the different categories for filings; however, the actual numbers are not easy to come by. One would have to break out a calculator in order to see a glimmer of actual figures. Still, even with a calculator actual foreclosure filings are almost impossible to tell because numerous types of filings appear including Real Estate Owned properties, or REOs. REOs shouldn’t be counted again as they have already been counted in the notice of default category, in months prior.

As foreclosure concerns increase, it looks like readers and journalists are finally beginning to question the accuracy of foreclosure reporting companies. While questioning the companies and researching figures is much more difficult than simply accepting the given figure, it is happening sporadically.

Take an article published in the Park Record on February 27, 2009. The article titled, “Foreclosures may increase in 2009″ analyzes a few different foreclosure listing companies. Here is an excerpt of the article.

“Realtytrac.com, a popular foreclosure listing site, says there are 37 such properties in Summit County. Two other websites, Foreclosure.com and Foreclosurefreesearch.com list about 20 such properties in the county.”

Considering the data collection methods of RealtyTrac, the higher figure (almost double) is of no surprise. The article continues by stating, “the smaller number is closer to what is actually posted on an official board in the Summit County Recorder’s Office.”